Anti-piracy law boosts rights owners' revenue

MOSCOW, December 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Law against piracy has increased the earnings of those owning creative rights, head of Russia's telecommunications and media enforcer Roskomnadzor Alexander Zharov told Itar-Tass.

“If we look at all Russian premieres screened after the law came into force, the situation is similar: films came out and content became inaccessible on the same day,” Zharov said, adding that rights owners must have contacted online sites telling them “delete the files or we’ll litigate” and leading to the content's erasure.

Zharov reported all rights owners as saying box office takings were on the rise since the law had come into force. No exact figures could be given yet but “this is clearly no margin of error”, Zharov said, citing one major rights owner whose earnings had grown about six percent quarter-on-quarter which the owner believed to have resulted from the new legislation.

The epic war production "Stalingrad" had escaped pirating, he added. One operator who placed the film on its site deleted the file in 15 minutes at the owner’s request. No precedents had followed, “the box office speaking for itself”, Zharov said.

Legislation took effect on August 1 this year. It allows the blocking of sites that provide unlicensed content on the rights owner's demand. It was initially to affect all manner of information but amendments followed and the law only regulates video content. If site owners do not delete the disputed material after the warning, it is blocked.